Nasdaq futures experienced an uptick on Monday, as shares of various energy companies surged following the U.S. military’s seizure of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. Futures for the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average exhibited increases of 0.8%, 0.3%, and 0.1%, respectively. In the early hours of Saturday, U.S. armed forces conducted an operation in Venezuela, resulting in the capture of Maduro. He had previously been indicted during the first Trump administration on charges related to drug trafficking and is scheduled to appear in federal court in New York today. President Donald Trump stated on Sunday night that the United States was “in charge” of Venezuela, a country possessing the largest oil reserves globally.
West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, were 0.5% higher Monday at $57.65 per barrel, while shares of Chevron, the only U.S.-based oil company currently active in Venezuela, soared 6.5% before the bell. Shares of several other oil producers, refiners, and oilfield-services firms experienced significant increases, with Halliburton rising by 10%; SLB by 9%; ConocoPhillips by 8%; Valero Energy by 8%; Baker Hughes by 7%; and Marathon Petroleum by 7%.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the benchmark S&P 500 concluded the trading session with respective increases of 0.7% and 0.2%, marking the commencement of trading for 2026. The indexes halted their four-session declines following record closing highs on Christmas Eve, though the tech-heavy Nasdaq experienced a slight decrease, marking an extension of its losing streak to five sessions. Shares of several AI chipmaker companies rose Friday and continued to gain, including Micron Technology, up 4% in premarket trading; Advanced Micro Devices, 3%; and Intel, 4.5%. Nvidia, the world’s most valuable public company, was up more than 1% before CEO Jensen Huang was set to speak this afternoon at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, where AMD CEO Lisa Su is also slated to give a keynote address Monday night.
Prices of precious metals experienced a notable increase, with gold futures rising over 2% to $4,430 per ounce and silver futures advancing more than 5% to $74.70 per ounce. The 10-year Treasury yield, a key determinant of interest rates across various commercial and consumer loans, decreased to 4.17% from the previous close of approximately 4.19% on Friday. Bitcoin experienced a trading price of nearly $93,000, reflecting an increase from the weekend’s lows of approximately $89,300. The U.S. dollar index, which monitors the value of the greenback relative to a selection of foreign currencies, increased by 0.2% to 98.63.